Enriching Artemia (Brine Shrimp)
Enriching Artemia (Brine Shrimp)-Using Seahorse Savvy's in house Enrichment
Why Enrich Brine shrimp?
Enriching (feeding) your baby brine shrimp (bbs) will make them much more nutritious for your Dwarf seahorses or growing seahorse fry. One will have little long term success feeding Dwarf seahorses unenriched brine shrimp. We enrich our bbs with our own in house enrichment formulated specifically for raising seahorse fry and maintaining Dwarf seahorses. We highly recommend this step as bbs by themselves are not very nutritious. Our in house enrichment was developed by our staff and is what all of our seahorse fry are raised on at our farm as well as our Dwarf seahorses. Our proprietary enrichment consist of Spirulina, probiotics, Astaxanthin, proteins, vitamins and more.
When and How to Enrich Your Artempia Nauplii (Baby Brine Shrimp)
We begin enriching our bbs when they are ~24 hours old (24 hours post hatch). This is when their gut is fully developed. After the brine shrimp have hatched and we have separated them we place them in newly mixed saltwater. We enrich our bbs at room temperature.
Our enrichment is dry and should be refrigerated. To prepare enrichment one will blend it in freshwater for approximately 2 minutes. Once it is well-blended add enough enrichment to the culture to tint it green. If the water clears more enrichment can be added. 100% water changes are recommended every 12 hours on cultures being enriched. After the water change one adds more enrichment. This is to prevent too much ammonia and bacterial build up in your culture. Not preforming water changes will lead to culture crashes. Having clean cultures is key to long term success with your seahorses.
We enrich our bbs for a minimum of 12 hours before feeding them to our seahorses. At 12 hours the gut of the brine shrimp is fully loaded. For best results, enrich for 24 hours or longer. We do not feed Artemia that are older than ~72 hours as they typically become too large for dwarf seahorses and young seahorse fry to consume.
Enriching Adult Size Brine Shrimp
Fully grown adult size brine shrimp which are commonly available at local fish stores can also be enriched with our enrichment. These make a great snack for your larger seahorse varieties (not Dwarf seahorses). Adult size brine shrimp only need to be enriched for 4-6 hours before feeding.
**Brine shrimp culture water should NEVER be added to your tank. Brine shrimp culture water is often high in ammonia and bacteria and will cause imbalances and problems in your tank. Use your sieve to separate the brine shrimp from the culture water before feeding them to your seahorses. Rinsing the bbs under cool tap water for approximately 30 seconds will help keep them cleaner too.
Our enrichment shelf life is approximately 2 years if kept refrigerated or frozen.
For information on how to hatch bbs see our article "Hatching Artemia (Baby Brine Shrimp) for Dwarf Seahorses and Seahorse Fry" here:
If you have any questions on how to use our enrichment please contact us.
Phone: 410-618-3604
Email: orders@seahorsesavvy.com